In Your Honor
by Rhaya
Summary: This is an AU where pregnant Padme decides to stay with Anakin after his turn to the Dark Side in hopes she can change him back, once the babies are born. But The Emporer kills Padme, how will Vader react?
1. Chapter 1

By my own Masters hand, you had been murdered. My beautiful angel, in death as in life you are still exquisite. As I stared down at your lifeless body, a sob almost broke through the shell that had formed over my soul long ago. I questioned why. Why you had been subjected to such a horrible fate. I was told you were no longer a neccessity. You had done your part and now you must die. He'd had to, he replied, it was for the good of the Empire. You had a strangle hold on my heart and would not relinquish it to the bitterness that threatened to claim it. Your strength was formidable, your resolve was great. You refused to give up on me, even as the monster I was now. I had fallen in love with that part of you, that refused to be dominated, did away with injustice, and despised anything but pure truth.

All of this ran through my mind as I gazed down at your broken lifeless form. My Master could see my thoughts as clear as a bell. He recoiled in disgust when I mentally took stock of your attributes, remembering the beautiful strength you held, and the love I could feel in your eyes. He said you had weakened me, you drained me of the darkness he needed for me to posess. You had filled me with happiness, an emotion most unwelcome in a Sith. You put light in my eyes that should only know the Darkness.

Now, upon your death, he told me I would begin to experiance the feelings I would need, to lead me further on the path to the Dark side. I had known fear, when I began having the dreams of losing you in childbirth. I now felt all consuming anger, for his selfish, unspeakable act, striking down the one person I had left who had meant something to me. I felt rage scathing me down to the very core of my being, and boiling over to a bubbling mass of darkness, darkness he would use to his advantage. My hand twitched a bit as it rested mere inches from my sabor. I considered killing him myself and taking the Empire as my own. Unquestioned Master to all surrounding me. My heart thumped louder in my chest as I pondered. I was almost drunk with the thought when something spoke to me.

What would you do to bring her back?

I was suddenly jolted out of my thought proccess by a female voice that posed the ultimate question. The one question I dreaded, but had known since I saw you lying there motionless, that I would ultimately have to find the answer to inside myself.

But who had posed the question? That I did not know, it had come to me in a voice so loud and clear that I thought it certain that the Emporer had heard it as well. But he did not acknowledge it, and I said nothing.

I looked around, your lifeless body was still at my feet. Their was no other female in the room, only my Master and I. The voice was still for a few seconds as if waiting for a response. Or waiting for me to acknowledge what I felt deep within my being. The Force was speaking directly to me!

That can't be, I thought, trying to push the thought aside and return to matters at hand. But he could tell something was distracting me. "What is it? Speak up!...Do you see something?" I looked away, unable to gaze upon your killer. Even if he was my Master. He nodded knowingly and his face broke into a smile, "Good," he sneered, his face becoming a steel wall of hatred. "Feel the anger rising in you Lord Vader. It will make you strong, not weak like the emotions our simpering, young, former Senator was somehow able to inspire in you." I jerked my head up to look at him when he had the audacity to mention her name. "Maybe in death she can be of some use to the Empire, instead of trying to destroy it as she did in life. I know you hate me right now for killing her. But you will remain faithful even now. For who but me will have you as you are? As you have been. Who among the Jedi would forgive your actions along the road to ultimate power? Need I remind you of your last visit to the Jedi academy?" His hand fell upon my shoulder, falsely portraying the caring Master.  
-  
I shuddered inside when he mentioned that fateful day. The day I had pledged my allegiance to the Empire, and to him, and the mission he had sent me on that day. I could still hear the younglings screams every night in my dreams night as I tried to sleep, to no avail.

It was the feeling of my first surge of true power that made me feel then that I couldn't give it up. To fight him in Padme's honor would turn me into what I hated most. A hypocrite. I had stood by and even taken part while he killed thousands in the name of the Empire. I was responsible for the death of my own children. And to now turn from the Dark side and put Anakins life back together without her...without them..

I could not further degrade her memory by dishonering the person she was in life in such a way. I shook my head in defeat, and turned to look at him. My head bowed, my face complescent, I replied, "No Master. I am grateful to you for accepting me. I will do whatever you ask." His face softened into the face I recognised as Senator Palpetine, the face I had trusted so much. The face that would lead me down the doorway to certain destruction of any shred of humanity and compassion within me.

He had truelly made me into a machine, that could afford no emotion.  
I had no choice now, my fate had been sealed. "Good, now I have heard rumours surrounding the death of Jedi Master Yoda. I want you to go to his home planet and see what information you can gleen from the locals there, then I will send one of my less,..recognisable affiliates to the Jedi Temple ruins, to look around."

He paused, and after a moment said with a satisfied sneer, "You would be a bit ...recognizable I think. And after another long pause with both of us making unspoken challenges, he sneered in disgust, and perhaps a small ammount of pity...If Sithlords were ever afforded with such emotions. I only knew of myself. And I knew that I had pitied many of the victims I has eradicated with my light sabor. But not enough to keep from completing my task.

Master spoke again, his voice taking on a soothing, syrupy tone " I can see inside your soul, read your every intention. You think I don't know you hate me? Trust me, I know. I will teach you to turn that hate into power. That power will serve you well. Trust me Vader, as you did that day you pledged your loyalty. And together we will rule this galexy!"

Without thinking I shot out, "Will you bring back Padme?" It was not a sarcastically rhetorical question, or a question of blackmail. I honestly wanted him to at least consider it. Perhaps if I couldn't save her from death the first time, I would succeed the second. And then I may be able to convince her to join me.

But I knew that, given a second chance to save our love I would be more vulnerable to her wishes, I may give up everything I had worked toward, in an effort to keep her with me always.  
His face became an evil mask of rage, and in a flash his face was mere inches from mine as he raged, "I killed her for the good of the Empire! And dead she shall remain! Now to your task!" His yellow eyes tinged with the blood of all of his victims now burned into me. Dejectedly, I once again bowed my head and in a flourish of black, I went to do his bidding. 


	2. Chapter 2

I raced my speeder furiously towards the small apartment that Padme and I had shared. I jabbed at the button to open the door so hard I thought my finger might break, and used the Force to close it behind me, but still it slammed shut with a thunderous sound. Like bars on a prison cell of old, I thought ironically, realizing I was indeed imprisoned. I was imprisoned by my lust for power, my need to control my own destiny. 

Once inside, surrounded by memories of her, for the first timesince I had carried out Order 66... I wept.

I wept for myself, for the monster I had become in order to save her, only to have that very decision become her undoing. I wept for all I'd lost in the proccess, the kinships, the love. She had said she hated what I had become, that she'd never accept me as I was, even if I was doing it for her. She didn't want it. I remembered the tears she had shed for the person I used to be. The love she still held for me, trying with all of her strength to drag me back into the light of day that my soul had once basked in.

Once I regained my composure, I ordered the helper droid to pack my things and called on the telecom to my Liutenant, telling him we were to set course to Dagobah at once. He had been sleeping, I mused. Almost envious of the fact, but as some took pleasure in saying, no rest for the wicked. After I made the order I cut off the connection and sat down, waiting for my baggage to be packed. I let out a deep sigh, and ran my finger along the line on my face, so marred, and rippled. A constant reminder of why she had feared for my life as much as I had for hers. I knew she had loved me, and I had loved her. More than almost anything in life.

An hour later I boarded my craft and ordered my Lieutenant to set course for Degobah, realizing for the moment I had a duty to fulfill. I would play along, and be the dutiful Sith I was supposed to be. Until I could figure out what my next move would be. I had promised her I would not shame her memory by turning it into a charade. I would not attempt to rectify my mistakes by a last effort of decency and think that would erase all I had done. But the thought still plagued me,  
refusing to evaporate.

iHe must pay/i My heart screamed. It raged on until I thought I would go mad with the thought. iHe took what was yours from you! He killed the only person you could love. The only one that mattered. What would your mother think if you let her down again! You know what Padme would have wanted, you're just too scared of the Emperor to risk being forced into battle with him! But it will come, whether you want it to or not! Whether you choose it for the right reasons or not, it will come!"/i There was no sabor mark on her, I recalled. She had not been cut down by a blade, but by his own hands and the power that dwelled there.

The finality of that realization threw itself at me with a forceful thud, making my heart pound furiously in my chest. It also sealed my destiny in one way or another. One day, by my own initiation or his, we would meet in battle. I had foreseen it in my nightmares, felt the pain as force lightning was pumped into my body with such brutality that my very breathe was stolen from me. Just as Padmes had been drained slowly from her body. But until now I had not known what the reason was behind my anger. I had not questioned it, only assumed I would attempt to overthrow him once I became strong enough.

Until I saw my loves limp form lying on the filthy floor in his chambers. It was not filthy from dirt or debris, but tainted with the blood of the innocent. Just as the blade of my light sabor had been soiled many times in his name. The final shock of the viciousness he posessed hit me when I saw what he had done to iher. /i That alone was a sufficient reason to bring my dreams to the realm of reality. I iwould/i fight him, I iwould/i attempt to destroy his Empire and the evil that had dwelt there for far too long. I gave up the notion that it would be a desecration to her memory, I had desecrated it by what I had become after her death. And the only way to put things right after what I had done was to destroy the thcome between us.

Did I really believe I would win? He had already begun to mistrust me, with my reaction over Padmes death. He had known the one vulnerable spot I had left and he destroyed it. That alone showed that in the event he was challenged, he would be merciless. He would stop at nothing to exact revenge on a treachorous adversary, one he had once trusted. H would first attempt to regain control.

But I was no longer under even my own control. I was almost afraid of myself, of the rage that boiled through me, scorching my veins. My fists clenched tighter as I thought of what she must have felt, at his merciless hand. He had used the very powers the Force had granted him, to destroy one of its most precious wonders. The only mistake she had made was in placing her faith in the heart of a Sith.

I would now show the Emporer that even the countinance of his apprentice had it's limits. And in destroying her, he had destroyed all loyalty I had to any being in the gallexy. In her own way, she had kept me anchored to my being. She had made me believe their were limits to the actions I would perform. Now those limits were fallable. But now it was not the Jedi, nor the Rebels that would feel my wrath. It was the very person who had sought to rip my heart out of her grasp. He would soon wish he had reconsidered that notion.

"Lord Vader?" I heard a voice behind me speak softly, I did not turn around, afraid my thoughts would betray me in merely a facial expression. I could feel his nervousness permeating the air around me as he quietly continued, "We will be arriving on Degobah in just a few moments, Sir." I nodded and with a wave of my hand, dismissed him, listening to him quickly take his leave. I had to push my current thoughts aside for now. I had to go along, to play his game until I could proccur the right situation to form a reliable plan. So as I stood to step onto Degobah soil for the first time in years, I became Vader and left Anakin behind once more.

The guards I had brought with me began to get into formation around me as I walked down the gangplank. I fixed my eyes into a hard cold stare and glanced at passers by as though daring them to challenge me. A man came up to greet me, his head bowed humbly. He didn't dare look me in the eye as he stammered, "Greetings, Lord Vader. Welcome to Degobah. We are most pleased to have you grace this humble planet with your presence. I am Ambassador Liam Rokjah. Is their anything you need to make your stay here more pleasant? We-" I cut him off swiftly with a raise of one gloved hand. "I am not here on a social visit. I am here on a mission for the Empire. Have you heard anything regarding the death of Jedi Master Yoda?" He shook his head, visibly stunned by my inquiry. "No My Lord, though I must say I haven't heard that name spoken all too often in many a year." The young man swallowed nervously as though afraid I would not believe his words. But through the Force, I could sense no dishonesty in the man, so I allowed him to live, and he stepped aside. I inquired of the location of Jedi Master Yodas quarters, and was also given a incredulous glance before he said, "I'm afraid I do not know, M'Lord. He was not one to make himself a spectacle, he kept himself hidden deep within the swamps, never interacting with the townsfolk. And we kindly kept our distance as that seemed to be his wish. The only townsperson who might remember is the healer, Omji. She was said to have gone there once, long ago searching for him. But she never speaks of it. Nobody knows what the purpose of her visit was or what happened while she was there. But she is old now, and her memory is surely aging along with her body. I'd be suprised if she still remembered the way." I nodded, "I shall see," I said. "If she does not remember consciously, their are other ways of extracting the information." His eyes grew wider with fear and he stopped walking for a moment. I had no such inclination, so I kept going. After a moment he hurried up to my side, "Oh but you would not hurt her M'Lord, would you? She is weak now, old and very frail."

"I will do what is neccessary to complete the task I was sent here to do, Ambassador." I stated bluntly. He fumbled with his tunic for a moment, then nodded in acceptance, knowing nothing he said would make a difference. I do not know if it was Anakin Skywalker speaking at that instant, or if I had a change of mind thinking the old lady might prove useful in other ways, but I found myself saying, "If she cooperates and tells me what she knows, no harm will come to her." And with that, I left a very stunned Ambassador Rokjah standing with his mouth agape as I hurried to fulfill the task at hand.


	3. Chapter 3

After walking without a guide for what seemed like hours in search of the healer woman, I happened upon a small child who, by twist of fate or sheer luck I could not decide, happened to say she knew exactly where Omji was. 

I came upon a ramshackle old shack made crudely of some kind of sticks which were held together by mud and an unidentifyable substance. Their were two small windows cut out on one side of the structure, and in the window sills were pots filled with green herbs growing in them. In between the pots there were small jars filled with strange looking mixtures. Some had things floating in them, although I did not stop to find out exactly what these objects were. The hut was a very quaintly built structure with foliage growing wildly around it, climbing the walls and making it almost look alive. As though built from plant life instead of sticks and mud. It reminded me of something that, as a child I would have been in great awe of and perhaps curious to see how it were built.

But that was a lifetime ago, now all that was on my mind was on was getting this wretched task overwith.It was not one I looked forward to, as I knew that if I discover the whereabouts of Master Yoda, I would then be dispatched to kill him. No Jedi must be left alive, he said.

I walked stealthily up to the door, giving it a sharp rap and barked out "Hello! I am here sent by His Highness the Emporer. I have a matter of great importance to discuss."

No answer. Not a voice, nor did the door move even slightly to open. Silence. I waited several moments, thinking if this woman was as frail as the Ambassador had said, she may take some time to walk to the door. But after several standard minutes had passed, my patiance wore thin, then evaporated. I gave the door a push, and it opened with a loud crash, the force almost draging me to the floor of the small living quarters.

The inside of the cottage was even more cluttered with debris than the outside had been. The walls were a deep ruddy brown, from the mixture of mud and other fixiations it had been constructed with. The floor, I saw was made of the ground itself, with small patches of strange looking plant-life growing up here and there. Their were crates of every size, from large to very small cluttering everything. And there was a large stone oven in the middle of the room. Insects crawled along the floor in hurried fashion, as if trying to escape from the stench of the room, which permeated the room heavily. It was a mixture of what I took to be herbs, and...body odors.

The smell of unwashed human flesh was sickening and I quickly covered my nose and mouth, and went in search of the woman. I looked throughout the hovel, searching every crevice, thinking perhaps she had gone hiding when she heard my calling. These marsh people were never known for taking kindly to visitors they didn't know. Suddenly I heard a voice singing faintly, as though from a distance away. I realised it was coming from outside. The old one was returning. She must have been out the entire time, probably gathering herbs for one of her infernal potions. But how would she react to coming home to find a Dark Lord of the Sith...standing in her living room? I didn't need any help from the Force to foresee that scene. I thought for a moment, then decided to go outside, wait for her to return, and then knock on the door.

But I took just a little too long in my pondering. For when I turned toward the door, there was a figure, clothed in a brown sack cloth robe in the doorway. The eyes that peered out at me were round, and the color of blood, crimson, with silver lining, kind yet full of worry . Since joining with the Dark Side I had not been as nervous in anyones presence other than my Master. But soon I realised it was not only the womans screaming that had me shaking slightly. It was the atmosphere that had somehow wandered into the room along with her. The feeling of warmth, of welcome, of feeling I belonged here. It was a feeling I hadn't had since...

"You miss her don't you?" The question came like a bolt of Force lightning, piercing my very core. This woman couldn't possibly know about Padme. Was she reffering to my mother? Word travelled among the gallexy at a fast pace when it revolved around the Empire. Perhaps she had somehow heard the rumours being spread about the mother of Lord Vader. I stumbled around the answer as I fought to maintain control of my nerves, to do what I had been sent here to do. After a few moments I regained my composure and asked, as gruffly as I could, "Do you know the where abouts of Jedi Master Yoda?"

She turned around, presenting her back to me. My first thought was that this peasent woman was being obstinant, and disrespectful, but then...she turned back around. And what she held out in her hand sent a shiver up my spine. That small trinket that had meant the world to my wife, just because I had made it with my own hands. I held out one hand to the woman, and she gently placed the japor snippet into it. I felt no shame to cry in front of this woman as I sank to my knees and let out the pains kept inside for over 15 years from my mothers death, and the more recent torment of my wifes demise. The fact that she hadn't worn the trinket in over a year did not suprise me, she had detested what I had become and had tried to convince me that the Emporer would come between us. That he was jealous of my devotion to her. But I had not listened. And now, because of my loyalty to him...my angel was gone. "You do not wish to find Yoda." She said simply. "If you find him, you will be forced to kill him. I can see your heart, it still lives. You do not wish to do this task. But you feel you owe someone. You feel bound to them. Feel that he is all you have left, and yet you hate him, would kill him if you could, for what he did to her. And to your mother."

In the years since she had been murdered, I had buried my mind in the fact that my mother had been murdered by the Tuskin raiders senselessly. Trying not to consider the possibility that their was any meaning to it. Was she now telling me their was some significant thing that connected her death to that of Padme? My mind reeled at the possibility. If it were possible that they were connected...did that mean ihe/i was to blame for Mothers death as well? Was I to trust this woman who may only be saying these things to sway my attention from the subject? "Why should I trust you?" I asked.

She smiled. "Don't trust me...trust your heart, Anakin. You know it to be true. He murdered your wife because she was a hinderance to your service to him. You would have eventually seen the wisdom of her words, and he couldn't have that. He planted the first taste of bitterness, hate, and vengeance into you with the only thing that could fill you with that much anger at that point. The murder of your mother. The one thing that had the power to bring you closer to the Darkness...closer to him."

I swallowed hard at the lump in my throat, and searched frantically for a place to sit. She raised her hands, and a wicker chair seemed to glide toward me and position itself behind me. Without thinking I sat down. I barely noticed her use of the Force, which told me she had had some form of training. From whom, I did not ask, for I didn't have to. I knew it to be Master Yoda.

If this were proven to be true may Force have mercy on him...for I would not.


	4. Chapter 4

The old woman peered up at me with those glaring eyes,

"I can see into your soul , you are not following your heart at this moment. You are troubled.You are filled with rage at his actions against those you've loved.  
The only ones you've ever opened yourself to enough to care for... He wiped them out like insects. If you are honest with yourself, you know he cares nothing for you, only for what you can do for him. To increase his power."

As I sat there silently absorbing all she had said and this new revelation, she looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, and then came the question I had been avoiding within myself. "Answer me this ...Anakin Skywalker. Look within yourself, within the heart that still beats inside you. Do you grieve her death for her sake, because her light was extinguished so tragically...or for yourself?" All composure I had attempted to maintain up to this point evaporated with that question. I stood up to my full height, and glared at her, "Do not presume to pry into my soul and attempt to degrade my love for her! You do not now as much as you think you do, old one!" I stalked around the chair and stood face to face with her, so close I could reach out and choke her if I so chose. I looked her squarely in the eye and spit out, " If you dare speak another word of this I will destroy you. I will teach you the appropriate way to speak to a Sithlord! I will have the answers I came here to find. Where is Yoda!" She did not move, did not flinch, nor even blink at my tirade.She simply stood there waiting patiently for me to finish, like a mother waiting out the tantrum of a petulant child. After a few moments ticked away, she sighed deeply and walked over to another wicker chair a few feet away. She slowly sat down, like the aged do when pains have made rising and sitting difficult and painful. Then she raised her hands, and thinking she was going to attack, I immediately ran my own hand up to my light sabor hilt. But I stopped when I saw a small wooden chest floating it's way towards her. It paused briefly when it came to her, then gently rested itself on her delicate lap. She glanced at me warrily, then beckoned me to her. I walked over until I was a few metres away and she opened the box. When she opened it I saw a blue light eminating from whatever was inside it. "This is the Star of Morgmaa. I was chosen as its keeper by Jedi Master Windu when he became head of the Jedi Council. It has the power to show the location of any Jedi you wish it to... he knew the Empire were wiping out all Jedi and thought it would be safer with me, which obviously proved to be true since he has met his... demise." She glared at me when she said this, and I felt a momentary twinge of remorse for Master Windus death at my own hand when I was trying to prove my loyalty to Sidious.

My mind registered all of this information and I felt a smile take shape upon my face. This would solve all of my Mast...of Sidious' problems. I refused to call him Master any longer. I would decide later what to do about the Empire, but he would not live.

This was the one thing that would have made his dream of making the Jedi completely extinct a reality. And I had it within my grasp, if I would simply take it. After all...how much of a fight could this ancient put up?

"That would not be a wise move on your part, Anakin Skywalker. You do not know the power you are dealing with. I will help you find Yoda. But you will not harm him, and you will not turn him over to your Master. He is far too valuable to you alive. You would be wiser to listen to your heart this time." I looked at her, the confusion plain in my face, so she replied, "He knows of what I speak. He will know why I have sent you to him, but I can see your heart is still torn. I will not turn him over to your Empire to be slaughtered as you have done to so many Jedi before him."

I glanced away for a moment so she could not read the expression in my eyes, the regret of things I had done that bred there. But her senses took hold of me and I could feel her searching my mind with the Force. Opening my soul to her, revealing my deepest secrets. I tried to nudge her out of my mind, but her power with the Force was shockingly stronger than even my own and she overpowered me easilly. "He knows you are useful to him as long as you depend upon him, so he keeps you that way by removing any other source of caring, or comfort you have, don't continue to allow this!" She pleaded. Those eyes pierced me like two tiny blades of steel. My shock at her use of my former name overthrew any argument I could muster. How she had known it was not yet a question I had had time to fathom. The power this old one posessed was amazing to me. I had grown to believe I was the most powerful wielder of the Force. But here stood a tiny woman, whom, if I didn't know better I'd say was...the physical embodiment of the Force itself! My own thought nearly knocked me over with the sheer amazement of it. It couldn't be. She was simply a woman, who admittedly had been very well trained in the ways of the Force, but was she...The Force in physical form?

She paused, put her hand up and an intricately carved wooden walking stick floated over to her. She grasped it, placed the end gently on the floor and strained to stand, using the stick to hoist up her tiny frame. Then she hobbled over to the other side of the room and turned, presenting me with her back once again. I was humbled so by the being so much more powerful than I that even this action did not anger me. I almost had the impuls to foolishly bow to her as I had once done to Master Yoda. She hobbled over to me and placed the small box in my hands.

I now had it in my control. Absolute power and an Empire in my firm control, with not a single Jedi left to question me, or a chance to regain any honor Padme had ever placed in me. She had believed in me, had always held steadfastly to the good she saw in me.

Conflict burned inside my being, stirring the pot until it was a frothy mass in my mind, brimming to the top, about to overflow. What was more important, power, or honor? Which would engrave one into the memories of the gallexy? Which create a legacy? And which would be my downfall?

If I went to Master Yoda, nothing guarunteed he would forgive my heinous actions. Nothing said he had any reason to believe my heart had changed. If I were to humble myself before him, and beg for my life back, what would come of it if he shunned me for what I was now? Would he attempt to bring me down, forcing me to commit another act of murder? For I would not accept death in any form as long as Sidious was still alive! I would kill Yoda if neccessary, in order to live long enough to avenge my loves death. As I stood there, I realised that she once again was in my thoughts, listening to everything as it played in my mind. "Yoda will not draw a light sabor unless you attack him first." She said, " He waits for you, he expects you to come to him. He welcomes your return to the Light, as long as you do it for the correct reasons. You see, if you return only to gain vengeance upon Sidious, you will be easilly returned to the Darkness. Anger leads to hate...Hate to the Dark Side. He warned you once, you would not listen then. Please Anakin, do not repeat past mistakes. Learn from them. Do this because you know it's the right thing to do. Do it for yourself, as well as for Padme. Don't you think that's what she would want as well? She would want you to be happy, not to force yourself into something for her benifit."

I nodded and looked down at the box in my hands...I opened it and looked at the Star of Morgmaa. It was a beautiful glowing purple orb, about the size of a grapefruit. I wondered how such an artifact ould tell me where Master Yoda was. As soon as the thought entered my mind...the ball seemed to fill with smoke. It got more and more dense as I watched silently, then the smoke slowly cleared. Once it had cleared completely I saw an image of Master Yoda,...clear as day. He was sitting beside a small pond, watching fish jump playfully. He looked to be deeply in thought, perhaps meditating. Then all at once, as though he had felt me watching him, he shuddered slightly and opened his eyes. He tapped his stick on the ground gently, and then stood. The image slowly began to fade, and the word Coruscant crept into my mind.

That must be where he is, I thought. I closed the box and ran my finger over its wooden cover as a wide, slightly lopsidded grin slowly took shape on my lips...Coruscant, eh? I hadn't been there in quite awhile anyway. The old woman didn't say anything, simply looked at me with a slightly nervous look in her eyes, and sighed deeply.

I placed the box inside my cloak, bid her farewell, and left. I had made my decision, and consequences be damned. 


End file.
